Valve Researching Wearable Computer Platform

Valve corporation has revealed the mysterious project that has been rumored to be a “Steam Console”. The enigmatic device is now known to be a “wearable computer”. Michael Abrash, the developer spearheading the project, was trying to find the best course of action to take while working at Valve. At the time before he though up the computer idea, he was suggesting that he help work with Portal 2. After some subtle coercion Abrash realized that there were other areas which would benefit a great deal more than with Portal 2.

I suggested to Jay Stelly that maybe I should work on Portal 2 as well. Jay said, ‘Yeah, you could do that, but we’ll get it shipped anyway.’ After a couple of discussions like that, I realized that he was saying was that I should think about whether that was really the most valuable thing I could be doing – there were plenty of people who were skilled at optimizing the Source engine already working on Portal 2, so it would be more useful to think about what high-impact things I could do that no one else was doing. That, and conversations with various people around the company, kicked me into a different mode of thought, which eventually led me to a surprising place: wearable computing.

The idea of a wearable computer in Abrash’s mind is one that “seamlessly” overlays both the real world and computer graphics. The device would not need to be held but instead worn, like glasses or contacts. This may sound wonderful but it can be troubling indeed. Most of us spend a majority of the time on the internet, what if we had the capability to easily access it without the burden of a laptop or tablet? Social life as we know it would rapidly change and probably not for the better. We already segregate ourselves from each other, what if we eventually become like the obese people from Wall-E? Chatting with other over our computers while standing right next to each other.

Then you have the “distracted driver” and the “distracted pedestrian”. These days people are not aware of their surroundings. We engage ourselves with out mobile devices and tablets and tune out the world around us. Who is to stop a person from wearing their computer while driving? There is no law against it since there hasn’t been a need for it. While walking around, how will you multitask reading your e-mails and watching where you’re going?

Technology is ever expanding and changing us. Some times for the better, but a lot of the times it tends hinders us.

Source: MCV